boost: Grounding Movements in Disability Justice webinar available

[jesse_the_k]

Last month I attended the Grounding Movements in Disability Justice panel online. It was great. The video (with ASL interpreters and a PDF transcript) is now up! It’s free! Check it out!
https://www.dustinpgibson.com/offerings/groundingmovementsindj

I was particularly impressed by Azza Altiraifi, who explained an idea capri0mni introduced me to: that various oppressive systems use disability bigotry as the lever to enforce power over oppressed people. To label someone as "disabled" is to erase their right to have control over their own life. Azza explores how this intersects with anti-Black racism in the U.S. She’s part of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think-tank:
https://americanprogress.org/about/staff/altiraifi-azza/bio/
If I were on Twitter, I’d definitely follow Azza_Alt!

There’s another panel tomorrow night, Friday, May 8th at 7:00 PM EST, on Disability Justice & COVID-19. Join the livestream by signing up at bit.ly/djgrounding

I’m so grateful that this information is available and provided in accessible ways. This is the way forward with hope: follow the ideas and leadership of Black people, who have been surviving and thriving in a system set against them for centuries.

Here’s Azza Altiraifi, copied from the transcript

Hi. This is Azza. I'm a black femme-presenting person wearing a yellow scarf with curls peeking out. I want to thank Dustin and TL for inviting me to be in this space with you. I'm really honored to be part of this and I want to thank the interpretation teams and everyone who put in time, labor and funding to make this happen. Since I am the first person to speak, I'm going to kind of focus a little bit on a systems level and kind of higher level analysis of what ableism is and how it shows up and intersects with other systems.

So to begin, I think the easiest way that I encourage people to conceptualize what I believe ableism actually is is to think about it in terms of kind of ranking and categorizing, bodies and minds as either "normative and desirable" or "deviant and disposable." And that ranking and categorizing of body-minds — and I use that phrase deliberately because bodies and minds are not separate, they are connected — the process of ranking and categorizing them is one that is inherently racist, and inherently anti-black and one that is inherently capitalist. And I will expand on all of that.

The way that the determination of who has value and who is disposable is based on capitalist understandings of productivity. So a body-mind that is able to produce is a body-mind that is valuable to the state. And a body-mind that is not able to produce is a body-mind that is disposable to the state. And in addition to that, when we think about how racism and anti-blackness and colonization show up and inform and shape every arrangement In this country, that project is inherently ableist.

It leverages the system of ableism and leverages the system that dehumanizes systematically disabled, mad and neurodivergent people. So it works in a way that takes advantage of ableism in order to further advance the concentration of wealth and power at the very top. And I start there because I want people to understand that black people, negatively racialized people are impacted by ableism even if that is not their -- the way they are identifying is not their lived experience. The process of ranking and categorizing is going to sweep them up just by virtue of the fact that they are black, brown and indigenous.

I will give you an example. Not that long ago there was a case in Florida, with a black woman was approached by a police officer and the police officer was trying to figure out a way to justify his violent conduct and treatment towards her and when he did that, he did it by saying and invoking a legal statute or act in Florida that is used to detain people who have mental illness or people who are mad. And the way that he did that and that interaction played out involved him invoking the Baker Act and saying well, if I can't detain you because you didn't actually break a law, I'm going to detain you this way. That's important because this black woman was not actually disabled.

But because the entire system has contributed in this country in a way that criminalizes and dehumanizes disability and disabled people, the carceral or the law enforcement apparatus was able to capture, confine, and incarcerate this person using ableism and using the systems of ableism that exist and are embedded within the institutions and structures of this country.

So in order for us to be equipped to tackle and dismantle these oppressive systems, it requires that we center and follow the leadership of people who are most impacted by it. And that's going to be people who exist at the nexus of those systems, namely, black indigenous and other people of color who are themselves, disabled, who are themselves mad and who are targeted by these systems in a way that is compounded and intensified.

Comments

Warning: Death mention follows.

[capri0mni]

And I was introduced to the ableism underlying all other oppressions by Mel Baggs, a disability activist and leader who, sadly, infuriatingly died, last month at the unnecessary age of 40.

Here is the obituary/memorial posted by The Autistic Women's and Non-Binary Network (AWN): https://awnnetwork.org/on-mel-baggs-untimely-death/

(This is why my Disability Pride Flag has a black field)

Re: Warning: Death mention follows.

[jesse_the_k]

I've been trying to write something about Mel's death and words haven't found me yet. I met Mel online around 20 years ago. Mel's writing and photography have been a constant source of education, inspiration, and affirmation.

Mel saw it coming, too ... in the last six months, sie wrote a lot about how terrifying it was to need health "care" from people who didn't perceive hir as a human being.

Much of it was on myceliorum

In addition to the famous blog,
https://ballastexistenz.wordpress.com/

there's also the tumblr
https://withasmoothroundstone.tumblr.com

and the "new blog"
https://cussinanddiscussin.wordpress.com

and the poetry&photography blog
https://ameliabaggs.wordpress.com/

If I keep reading them, I may learn how I to put my feelings into words. Or not -- sie opened up the possibility of not using words.

Re: Warning: Death mention follows.

[capri0mni]

Mostly, I've been reblogging quotes from hir. Hir words are more important to remember than my words about hir words/\.

Re: Warning: Death mention follows.

[jesse_the_k]

YES!

excellent perspective. Thank you.

Re: Warning: Death mention follows.

[jesse_the_k]

And I forgot the link to the excellent post you mentioned

https://ballastexistenz.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/there-is-ableism-somewhere-at-the-heart-of-your-oppression-no-matter-what-your-oppression-might-be https://ballastexistenz.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/there-is-ableism-somewhere-at-the-heart-of-your-oppression-no-matter-what-your-oppression-might-be

[cynthia1960]

Thank you!

[jesse_the_k]

<3